“We’ve nearly exhausted what we can do with conventional electronics and with radio frequency, and we’re starting to move to lasers and photonics — actually computing with light because it gives us another generation in speed improvement and capability,” said Zimmerman, the SPAWAR communications networks and information assurance expert.

The difference for Marines in the field is receiving a full-color, high-definition image of their target, beamed down from an aerial drone, instead of a poorer-quality image or one that comes too late.

If successful, the nascent technology might surface in military applications in a decade or so.

“It’s very much at the research level, but we hope to take a large rack of electronics and shrink it down to a single chip for high-speed performance,” Russell said. “That’s the holy grail.”